“The Blair Witch Project” is striking an unmistakable chord with moviegoersand the media. While some audiences have resorted to passionate onlinedebates about the “reality” of the film, press outlets are starting tofocus on the marketing and its perceived similarity to other movies. Thegrowing buzz is clearly helping at the box-office, even though the film isstill in limited release.

Based on its second weekend grosses, Artisan Entertainment‘s release ofHaxan Films‘ “Blair Witch ” appears poised for a stellar nationalbox-office expansion. The film’s release, which grew slightly to 31screens this weekend, earned approximately $2,000,000 for a per screenaverage of $64,500, according to Reuters. The low-budget indiefilm fromOrlando, FL will expand to a reported 1,000 screens on July 30th. Lastweekend, the film earned approximately $1.5 million on 27 screens for anaverage of more than $57,000 per screen.

Anticipating the expansion, Variety‘s Andrew Hindes and Chris Petrikinreported last week that Hollywood studios are wary of the Artisan release’sgross potential. The Hollywood trade indicated that Universal has moved therelease date of “Mystery Men” to August 6th and Warner Bros. has shiftedits “Deep Blue Sea” opening date up two days to July 28th. While aUniversal exec would not confirm the impact of “Blair Witch” to Variety, aWarners exec told the trade the movie was a factor in his company’sdecision to alter the opening date.

In a conversation with indieWIRE last weekend, Artisan president Amir Malintold indieWIRE that his company is spending about $8 million to market thefilm’s upcoming expansion. The push includes a TV campaign which wasclearly evidenced on MTV this weekend. Artisan is targeting the movie atthe 18 – 29 age group.

In “Blair Witch” filmmaker Dan Myrick’s indieWIRE diary from Cannes ’99, heindicated that the Artisan executive team has promised the Haxan Films crewa competition grade foosball table if “Blair Witch” breaks $10 million atthe box office. Commenting in his diary, Myrick wrote, “Now the odds arethat this day will never come, but I still like the image of (Artisan’s) BillBlock searching through a Valley Sports catalog looking for the best deal on afoosball table. I wonder what the Fed Ex limit is on stuff like that?”

Artisan should have FedEx on standby, by my estimation, the foosball tablewould be due in Haxan’s Orlando office sometime this Saturday evening atthe latest.

The six-week old broadband network channel developer, On2.com, has hiredformer Miramax exec Joel Roodman as its VP of development. Roodman leftMiramax in 1995 to form Gotham Entertainment and recently returned to theIndieWood company after Gotham shut its doors. He will focus on developing“strategic relationships with the major studios” for the company’s moviechannel, according to an On2.com announcement. Based at Manhattan’s TribecaFilm Center (also headquarters for Miramax), the company plans to launchits first high-bandwidth channel, On2Movies, in the fourth quarter of thisyear.

Palm Pictures’ animation brand, Manga Entertainment, announced that it willdistribute three Japanese anime films, Osamu Desaki’s “Blackjack,” SatashiKon’s “Perfect Blue,” and “X” from Clamp Studios. “Blackjack,” which isbased on the work of Osamu Tezuka, will be released in theaters thissummer, while “Perfect Blue,” will be released in NYC late next month. “X”will be released early next year.

Acclaimed British cult film, “Performance” (aka The Performers) by DonaldCammell and Nicolas Roeg, will air on television next month — for thefirst time in ten years — as part of a retrospective of Cammell’s work onthe Independent Film Channel (IFC). Released theatrically in the U.S. in1970, the film explores sex, drugs and violence in 1960’s London, andfeatures James Fox, Mick Jagger, Anita Pallenberg, and Michele Breton.

An IFC press release announcing the August 13th screening acknowledgesCammel’s “insatiable appetites in London’s underground world of sex, drugs,and music,” and adds that his “peculiarities and voracious sexual appetite,which were a matter of public record, became a catalyst for his creativitythroughout his career.”

Cammell has also directed “Demon Seed” (1977), “White of the Eye” (1988),and “The Wild Side” (1995). Cammell committed suicide three years ago inLos Angeles, at the age of 62.